House closing

We closed on the house yesterday. I feel sad just thinking about it, although not as sad as I was yesterday when I called and canceled the gas and electric services. I had a little meltdown that went something like this:

Julie: "I'm sad"
C.J.: "What are you sad about?"
Julie: "I miss home"
C.J.: "What do you miss about it?"
Julie: "I miss our house and my own stuff and my car and a grocery store that is fully stocked all the time and people who speak English I can understand and barbecue. I miss America!"

And then I started crying. And then C.J. said, "do you want to go home?" And then I said, very dramatically: "WHAT home! We just sold it! I can't go home now!"

And then he was looking at me with that I'm-a-man-I-don't-understand-why-you-cry look and tried to give me a hug but I was inconsolable. Although, after awhile I felt better and then I went for a walk and looked at the beach in the sunset and realized, what the hell am I crying about I live on a Caribbean island.

And when C.J. got home from class he was worried about whether or not I was o.k., but I was talking on the phone and laughing. And then he gave me the your-female-mood-swings-are-so-weird look, and I had to reassure him that I was feeling better and that I was not leaving him and I will recover from this sad spell. Mars and Venus!

Anyway, the house is no longer ours. I will get over it. But, as a final tribute I have to post a picture here and list some things that I really love about this house, our first home that we owned in the most amazing town of Austin, TX.

First of all, isn't it cute?? I love that it was built in 1947 and that it is only 918 square feet and it has a detached one-car garage and a gravel driveway. I love that it has three bedrooms even though it is small so we had a bedroom, guest room and office. I love that it was small because it forced us to have less stuff (although you wouldn't know it if you saw all the moving boxes). I love the mature trees in our yard and on our street.

I love that it has beautiful, original hard wood floors and it had been remodeled with new cabinets and granite counter tops and new appliances in the kitchen. I didn't love having only one bathroom but I didn't mind it either. It was enough for us. I loved opening the curtains to let the light in when I woke up in the morning. I loved laying on the couch in the living room on the weekend and drinking coffee or reading a book. I loved sitting at the kitchen table when I got home from work and eating dinner or reading the paper. I loved that we had a window in the side door. I loved that we had a little front porch that had room for two chairs.

I loved our new next door neighbors Dave and Tiffany, and Adam and John across the street, although they were eclectic to put it nicely, were good neighbors too. I will miss their Tuesday night band practice and Sundays during football season when they watched Cowboys games and you could hear them yelling from across the street.

I loved when C.J. and I were home alone together. It was the perfect size for us. I also loved when people came to visit, there was plenty of room for guests too. And it was even a boarding house for some of our friends and family who had extended stays during life transitions. Our house was their house.

I loved the location. We could ride the bus downtown in 15 minutes. It picked up and dropped off at the end of our block. It was only 2.5 miles from work so I never had a long commute. I could even run to the gym downtown if I was feeling ambitious. When C.J. was in school it was only a mile to campus. And it was easy to get to the airport or out of town on Hwy 71.

I will most fondly remember the late-night singalongs that we had at the house with our music-loving friends. In the living room or on the back porch, always spontaneous and after we had been out somewhere else. We always stayed up way too late. I also will miss watching movies projected on the side of the garage with H's projector. We didn't do that enough.

I will miss the neighborhood which is one of the best in Austin. I loved that we had a theatre at the end of the block and I'm glad we were able to make it to several shows before we moved. I loved the annual Cherrywood Art Fair at Christmas time and the neighborhood list serve where you could get some advice or something for free or keep up on neighborhood gossip.

And the restaurants. Hoover's mac and cheese, meatloaf, mufaletta, green beans, fried catfish, chorizo burger on Wednesday, french fries and about everything else on the menu. Mi Madre's breakfast tacos. Eastside Cafe's crab cake salad and buttermilk pie. El Chilito's veggie tacos and fish tacos. El Chile's vegetarian casserole thing and that fish plate - tilapia I think. And the Red House, the local bar! Grapefruit martinis and the patio and the miniature animal heads hanging on the wall inside. And Star Seeds - dependable food, always open and the weirdest wait staff in town.

And I would be remiss if I did not mention Scrappy Cat aka String bean, Cowboy, Scrapper, or Asshole (per Kim Yancey). The meanest, toughest ally cat that ever lived. Also the most social and loving cat I ever met. We left him with the house. We asked John and Adam to feed him. The night we left he came around for a minute. We petted him and then he walked off into the night. Very stoic. I bet he misses us less than we miss him.

When we were preparing to sell the house we put in a lot of our own labor and time and money to landscape the front yard. I was really proud of the work we did. C.J. tilled the front yard (thank you for the help H and Rick) and laid down 12 yards of dirt. We planted seven beds of plants, created the borders, mulched them (thank you Amber) and laid sod. We spread 8 yards of gravel in the driveway (thank you Jared) and laid a path to the back porch. We watered the heck out of it and weeded and were amazed at how much better it looked. I wish we could have enjoyed it longer. I hope the new owners take care of it.

So goodbye 3203 Merrie Lynn. Thanks for all the great memories. I hate that I will never have you back - it would never be the same even if I could. But I know life goes on and someday there will be another house that will feel like home just like you did.